05-Feb-2012
The News
KARACHI: Coaches and managers of teams participating in the National Hockey Championship are divided in their view on how the title-holders should be decided at the end of the tournament.
The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has decided to hold semifinals after nine league matches. This move is a change from last year when the federation kept the final for the top two finishers in the league.
Last year, league leaders Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) were pipped to the title by National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in the final and with the loss still fresh in their memories, PIA manager Shahid Ali Khan is insisting that the winner should be the team which finishes at the top in the league. “In earnest, the team which finish atop after all their league matches should be declared winners. In knockout phase the teams who are in third or fourth position can click on their day, performing outstandingly in semis and final to win the championship which in my view is wrong,” Shahid told ‘The News’ on Saturday.
PIA currently lead the pack with 19 points from seven matches, while Army are a point behind in second. If the winner had to be decided on league basis, it would have been a race only between PIA and Army. But with that not being the case, the likes of WAPDA (13), NBP (12) and SSGC (12) are also contending to win the championship.
Although Army would have an advantage if the winners were decided on a league basis, their coach Major Tariq has welcomed PHF’s move as it would provide healthy competition right till the end.
“A team in sixth or seventh position will continue to fight to get into the top-four until their very last match which automatically keeps the competition healthy,” Tariq stressed.
He added that this way the event would turn out to be like a marathon race for teams.
SSGC coach Rana Zaheer echoed Tariq’s views, saying that the format was made keeping in mind the 2012 London Olympics as the increasing number of matches would help in gauging fitness levels of the players.
“I think playing more matches is good because the competition will get tough and teams will have more matches. Team officials were informed of this format in the meeting and nobody raised any objection which means that they had no issues with it,” Zaheer said. |
